The UK market is moderately lower in afternoon trading Wednesday, as Greece continued to weigh on investor sentiment. Concerns surrounding the debt-ridden nation crushed Asian stocks as well.
Impasse continued in Greece, where political parties could not agree on forming a coalition. A fresh election date may be announced shortly for the country, thus triggering doubts on its international aid as well as exit from the euro currency bloc.
Greece's Central bank chief George Provopoulos has reportedly told President Karolos Papoulias that people withdrew as much as 700 million euros amid the uncertainty, and banks fear about their survival.
IMF Chief Christine Lagarde said the spillover effects and the chain of consequences that could result from a Greek exit from the eurozone could be quite messy.
Meanwhile, European Union finance ministers reached an agreement over stricter new banking rules to avoid future crises and relieve taxpayers from the need to bailout banks.
In a statement, the Council of the European Union said the ministers unanimously agreed a general approach on two proposals - the so called "CRD 4" package, amending the EU's rules on capital requirements for banks and investment firms.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is sliding 0.03 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. Companies, is losing 0.60 percent.
The FTSE 100 index is currently losing 0.85 percent.
BHP Billiton is losing 1.8 percent while Rio Tinto is falling 1.7 percent.
Glencore is losing 3.9 percent. UBS cut the stock to "Neutral" from "Buy."
UBS also reduced its rating on Xstrata to "Neutral" from "Buy." The stock is dropping 2.8 percent.
ICAP is falling 1.2 percent. The company reported lower annual profit.
Sainsbury is declining 3.9 percent and Kingfisher is down 1.1 percent.
Barclays is up 1.5 percent after UBS raised the stock to "Buy" from "Neutral."
IMI is up around 2 percent and International Consolidated Airlines is adding 2.1 percent. Polymetal is declining 4.3 percent.
Croda International is advancing 4 percent.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German DAX is falling 0.87 percent and Switzerland's SMI is down 0.01 percent while the French CAC 40 is adding 0.21 percent.
In economic news, the U.K. economic growth is set to remain subdued, while inflation is judged to be somewhat higher than expected three months ago, the Bank of England said in its quarterly Inflation Report.
The BoE said prospects for U.K. growth remain unusually uncertain. Governor Mervyn King said the economy will continue to face headwinds during the forecast period.
Across Asia/Pacific, Australia's All Ordinaries retreated 2.4 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.2 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 3.2 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 1.1 percent.
In the U.S., futures point to a slightly higher open on Wall Street. In the previous session, worries about Greece weighed on the markets once again. The major averages moved roughly sideways going into the close, stuck firmly in negative territory. The Dow fell 0.5 percent, the Nasdaq slipped 0.3 percent and the S&P 500 dropped 0.6 percent.
In the commodity space, crude for June delivery is losing $1.55 at $92.43 per barrel and June gold is falling $21.9 to $1535.2 a troy ounce.
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